The Next Best ThingI recently viewed the Commencement issue [WM Summer 2015—“What Wabash Is All About”]. It was out-standing, and the next best thing to being there. You put just the right face on the College.
—John W. Bachmann ’60, St. Louis, MO
Martha Riddle and Wabash Values
I so enjoyed your remembrance of Martha Riddle [WM Spring 2015]. I have it here on my desk. Martha came to life for me through your writing.
I married Wabash in 1967 when I married Jim Graham ’65. I never read the alumni magazine until after Jim died in 2004, and I read it cover to cover now. I am grateful to receive it and to still feel connected to the school that Jim loved.
I think Jim loved Wabash so much because Wabash provided structure (like Chapel attendance) and required commitment to standards (work and personal values) and expected adherence to values (like honesty and ethics) that maybe one did not have prior to attending college.
I think faculty recognized talent in my Jim that he did not see and gave him something to work up to/live up to/set goals for. There is nothing like having faculty open one’s eyes to potential one does not see.
Jim loved Wabash because Wabash helped him to grow into a better person in every way, and a very fine and successful Air Force officer.
—Lani Graham, Hesperus, CO
Thanks to Fred Pippin ’59
I was saddened to read in WM Spring 2015 of the passing of Fred Pippin.
Fred was most instrumental in my decision to transfer from University of Chicago to Wabash in 1963. He was in the MBA program at University of Chicago and living in my residence hall as a resident advisor for undergrads.
I was not finding the environment there that I wanted, and he spoke so highly of Wabash I was motivated to apply. He even called the College and helped arrange an interview for me. I was admitted and began my Wabash education in January of 1963.
He kept in contact for a few years to learn that I was very happy with my decision to enroll.
I am sure that I met him a few times later at reunions or Homecoming games when I still lived in the Chicago area and thanked him for his advice.
—Richard Geiger ’65, Nevada City, CA
WNDY’s Early Years
During our correspondence with broadcasting entrepreneur Jay Williams ’66 concerning his essay “Advocacy” in WM Spring 2015, we learned some interesting facts about the early history of WNDY, the College’s student-run radio station. Here are a few:
The old WNDY studio was in the basement of Yandes Hall[today’s Detchon International Center], where we were on edge around our jerry-rigged wiring after every hard rain that soaked the outside wall and the floor.
We did some fun things back in the day: carried all the Crawfordsville High School basketball games, as well as Wabash football games. And I did a 36-hour Easter Seal marathon broadcast from the window of Dellekamp’s Department Store. Did you know that department store windows are not heated? I certainly learned that as early as 10 p.m. during that broadcast.
And before I managed to get the College to buy WBBS from the First Baptist Church (“This is WBBS (FM), for Christ’s sake, in Crawfordsville, IN”), our students ran two stations at the same time.
—Jay Williams ’66, Charleston, SC